Mombasa Chachachá A Brief Guide to Swahili Taarab by Ellen Collison The Muslim coastal cities and islands of East Africa, the home of the Swahili people, are important commercial centers on the shipping routes between the Arabian peninsula and India. Swahili involvement in international trade has produced a flourishing local music scene, open to the assimilation, adaptation and transformation of wildly disparate styles of music. This cosmopolitan culture gave birth to taarab or, alternatively, tarabu. Arabic music has been part of Swahili culture for over a thousand years. During the late nineteenth century, small amateur and semi-professional ensembles using Arabic instruments such as the oud, qanun (zither), rika (tambourine), dumbak (goblet drum) and violins tuned to Arabic maqamat (modes) sprang up throughout the region. By the 1930s, large orchestras had become commonplace on Zanzibar and in some of the Kenyan and Tanzanian taarab centers. The music of Yemen and Oman has long been a dominant influence on taarab, but the genre is nothing if not eclectic – during the 30s and 40s, musicians lifted new rhythms and melodic lines from Cuban pop tunes and Egyptian and Indian movie musicals. In the 50s and 60s electric organs, guitars, accordions, bongos, Indian tabla, buzuq (a Lebanese folk lute), synthesizers and other instruments (including a Japanese toy zither known as the tuntunia) found a permanent home in most groups, and new Latin American musical styles were adopted by Swahili musicians. Change and experimentation are the lifeblood of taarab, making it resistant to definition but awfully easy to love. It's celebratory in nature, tailored to all-night wedding parties, and (like many musical hybrids) pulsating with life – the rich, multilayered melodies, rhythms and poetic lyrics (subtly satirical or scandalous, philosophical, flamboyantly romantic or nostalgic) have a unique swagger and and swing... This is an excerpt from Dirty Linen #77 To read the entire article, Subscribe! © 1998 Dirty Linen, Ltd., Baltimore MD No reproduction in any form is permitted without written permission from the editors.